1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a body movement detecting apparatus and a body movement detecting method for detecting body movements of a user and calculating energy consumed by the body movements.
2. Description of the Related art
In the related art, there is a pedometer as one of body movement detecting apparatuses, and more specifically, those added with a calculating function of consumed energy are widely distributed. The pedometer as described above is configured to count the number of steps (step) of the user made by walking (including running, hereinafter), and to calculate consumed energy according to the number of steps. As another body movement detecting apparatus, for example, the one disclosed in JP-A-2002-191580 is proposed. The body movement detecting apparatuses including the pedometer in the related art as described above are configured to perform a process to detect or not to detect the body movements which satisfy preset conditions irrespective of the person who uses the apparatus.
However, the users of the body movement detecting apparatuses are as diverse as students, workers, homemakers and so on and have different life styles, respectively, so that the state of usage of the body movement detecting apparatus is different from user to user. When an activity such as walking is performed for example, the way of walking is different from user to user, and hence the state of usage is different from user to user even though the type of the activity is the same. Therefore, with the apparatuses which detect the body movement always under certain conditions for all users and calculate the consumed energy as the body movement detecting apparatus in the related art, the calculation of the consumed energy in which characteristics of the body movement of individual users are taken into consideration cannot be achieved.
In view of such circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a body movement detecting apparatus and a body movement detecting method which are capable of calculating consumed energy by determining a type of a body movement on the basis of a reference of the individual user.
In order to solve the above-described problems, there is provided a body movement detecting apparatus including: a body movement data acquiring unit configured to detect a body movement of a user and acquire body movement data relating to the body movement; a memory unit configured to memorize the body movement data corresponding to a type of an activity of the user as registered body movement data; a body movement determining unit configured to compare the body movement data acquired by the body movement data acquiring unit with the registered body movement data and determine the type of the activity of the user; and a computing unit configured to be able to calculate consumed energy by the body movement corresponding to the type of the activity determined by the body movement determining unit.
In the body movement detecting apparatus according to the invention, the computing unit is capable of calculating the consumed energy using a body activity strength determined by the type of the activity.
The body movement detecting apparatus according to the invention includes an input unit being capable of inputting the type of the activity of the user, and the registered body movement data is body movement data acquired by the body movement data acquiring unit and memorized in the memory unit in correspondence with the type of the activity input by the input unit.
In the body movement detecting apparatus according to the invention, the memory unit memorizes one or more types of the activities together with body activity strengths for the respective types of the activities, and the user is allowed to operate an input unit to select a desired type of the activity from the types of the activities memorized in the memory unit, and causes the registered body movement data to be memorized in the memory unit.
In the body movement detecting apparatus according to the invention, the memory unit memorizes the types of the activities except for walking and/or running together with the body activity strengths for the respective types of the activities, the body movement determining unit is capable of determining whether or not the user is walking and/or running by a predetermined threshold value relating to the body movement data acquired by the body movement data acquiring unit, and the computing unit calculates the consumed energy on the basis of a body activity strength calculated on the basis of a body movement strength of the body movement data when the body movement determining unit determines that the user is walking and/or running, and on the basis of the body activity strength determined by the type of the activity of the registered body movement data when the body movement determining unit determines that the user is not walking and/or running.
In the body movement detecting apparatus according to the invention, the computing unit calculates the consumed energy on the basis of the body activity strength determined by the type of the activity of the registered body movement data when the body movement determining unit determines that there are the registered body movement data corresponding to the body movement data acquired by the body movement data acquiring unit, and calculates the consumed energy on the basis of the body activity strength calculated on the basis of a body movement strength of the body movement data when the body movement determining unit determines that there is no registered body movement data corresponding to the body movement data.
There is provided a body movement detecting method includes: a body movement acquiring step configured to detect a body movement of a user and acquire body movement data relating to the body movement; a registered body movement data acquiring step for memorizing the body movement data corresponding to a type of an activity of the user as registered body movement data; a body movement determining step for comparing the body movement data acquired by a body movement data acquiring unit after the registered body movement data acquiring step with the registered body movement data and determining the type of the activity of the user; and an energy computing step being able to calculate consumed energy by the body movement corresponding to the type of the activity determined by a body movement determining unit.